simple machine
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of simple machine
First recorded in 1900–05
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If a relatively simple machine can produce behavior that looks intentional without possessing a decision-making system, could human behavior also appear to result from centralized decisions even if no such central process exists?
From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026
Henry Ford’s Model T, by contrast, was a crude but ingeniously simple machine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Microphones in the robot’s ears allow it to triangulate sound and turn to nearby noise while cameras in its eyeballs run a simple machine vision program to track hands and faces.
From The Verge ● May 4, 2022
A simple hydraulic system, such as a simple machine, can increase force but cannot do more work than done on it.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
The answer is easy: he would carefully observe his environment to see what materials he could use to make a simple machine, like a pulley or a lever.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
